New check

Comparison

Controld vs Cisco Umbrella

Controld lands on Worth it, and Cisco Umbrella lands on Depends.

Controld

Worth it

Confidence: Medium

Buy if you want strong DNS-level blocking of ads, trackers, and malware for a household or small business.

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Cisco Umbrella

umbrella.cisco.com

Depends

Confidence: Medium

Buy if you're a mid-size or large org, ideally already running Cisco gear, that needs DNS-layer filtering across many sites and users.

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Controld versus Cisco Umbrella
Compare	Controld	Cisco Umbrella
Verdict	Worth it	Depends
Best for	Households blocking ads and adult content	Mid-size and large IT teams
Who it's not for	Enterprises needing full web gateways or CASB	Small teams . a router filter or DNSFilter suffices
Privacy	No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.¹⁰	Several CVEs from 2022-2026 (auth bypass, privilege escalation); Cisco publishes advisories and fixes.
Support quality	Public complaints about support attitude	No support evidence in sources
Public sentiment	Users praise fast, effective blocking and time savings but gripe about over-blocking, per-device pricing, and support attitude.^¹	Active G2, PeerSpot, and r/sysadmin threads show users publicly questioning its cost and weighing alternatives.¹⁵
Biggest gotcha	Per-device billing scales badly; big households and fleets pay far more than flat-rate rivals.^⁵	Quote-only pricing; costs vary per deal . get competing bids before signing

Pick Controld when

Households blocking ads and adult content
SMBs wanting DNS-level security
Privacy-minded individuals
IT teams deploying to device fleets

When Controld is not a fit

Enterprises needing full web gateways or CASB
Flat-rate pricing fans . per-device billing adds up
Buyers expecting hand-holding support
Anyone wanting zero-tweak setup . expect whitelist fiddling

Pick Cisco Umbrella when

Mid-size and large IT teams
Cisco-centric networks
Multi-site DNS filtering
Compliance-driven orgs

When Cisco Umbrella is not a fit

Small teams . a router filter or DNSFilter suffices
Anyone needing transparent, self-serve pricing
Solo admins without security staff to tune it
Buyers avoiding Cisco ecosystem lock-in

Sources

ControlD Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Featuresg2.com
review
Adult Content -- Excessive blocking on relaxed settingreddit.com
review
Poor Customer Service attitude following unwanted ...reddit.com
review
I Left NextDNS for ControlD, and Ended Up Wasting My ...reddit.com
review
It looks like cost is not comparable. ControlD pricing is per ...news.ycombinator.com
review
ControlD Free DNS Ads & Tracking and Italian LG smart TVreddit.com
review
Case Study: GitHub Cuts Security Overhead With Control Dcontrold.com
official
ControlD is a new DNS service by the makers of Windscribe VPNghacks.net
news
Pricing for Personal Usecontrold.com
official
Product security pagecontrold.com
official
Modern DNS Protocols: DoH, DoT & DoQcontrold.com
official
Shadow IT Discovery with DNS Analyticscontrold.com
official
Cisco Umbrella: DNS-Layer and Cloud Cybersecurity Solutionsumbrella.cisco.com
official
Cisco Umbrella Packagesumbrella.cisco.com
official
Cisco Umbrella Reviews . G2g2.com
review
Cisco Umbrella pricing question . PeerSpotpeerspot.com
review